These four regional tournaments taking place throughout January are, for manyteams, the last chance to qualify for the IEM Katowice Major.

According to ESL's announcement, the eight participants in each Minor have been split into two groups of four in a double-elimination format. Opening matches will be best-of-one, with the following decider, elimination and winners’ matches decided on a best-of-three basis.

Former Astralis CEO resigns as director of BLAST

Former founder and CEO of Astralis, Frederik Byskov, has resigned as BLAST Pro Series' Director of Esports Operations.

I've resigned as Dir. of Esports Operations at @BLASTProSeries and will be moving on. It's been a great challenge and I wish my colleagues at RFRSH all the best with this years circuit. What's next for me, you might ask? I've not decided yet, but will do so in the coming months.